iTunes Festival starts today, streaming live to iPads everywhere

Every year Apple hosts a month of live music gigs as part of the
iTunes Festival. It
starts today, 1 July, and for anyone not attending the 60+ London
concerts in person, you'll be able to stream them live to a free
iPad and iPhone app in HD.

Playing at the Roundhouse in Camden, Paul Simon is the first
artist to take to the stage this year. Later in the month will
follow Coldplay, Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance, Foo Fighters,
Jimmy Eat World, Chase & Status, Moby and more. My request last
year for more black metal bands and experimental grindcore, it apparently
seems, fell of deaf ears.

Apple doesn't charge anyone for tickets to the gigs, but the
reason behind their existence is that Apple gets to sell the
recordings of the concerts exclusively on iTunes. Over the last
five years I've bought a number of them (Pendulum being a favourite
from a couple of years ago).

But it makes me wish more festival organisers would do this the
other way around -- free recordings of the gigs you paid to see at
festivals. Or perhaps a handful of free tracks to choose from an
entire festival's line-up, with the complete collection put on
sale. There's no better live recording than one created during the
night you attended.

If you want to check out some of the live shows from the
forthcoming iTunes Festival shows though, go and grab the free festival app from iTunes. Alternatively, you can
watch it live through iTunes from tonight.